Celtic Mythology and Religion

THE " DRUID " CIRCLES. 187,
off from the circle three lines of stones, making, with
the avenue, a kind of cruciform groundplan. The
great chambered mound at New Grange, in Ireland,
is entered by a long passage three feet wide and some
six feet high, the sides of which are composed of
megalithic pillars covered over with slabs. The
chamber has branches running off right and left,
and a third in continuation of the passage. The
general resemblance of this groundplan to that of
Callernish caused Dr. Stuart, in his "Sculptured
Stones of Scotland," to say :
" If the cairns at New
Grange were removed, the pillars would form another
Callernish." But Callernish was never covered
with a mound ; it was, indeed, threatened to be
covered with peat, accreted through countless centuries.
The avenue is too broad—eight feet broad
and the stones too pointed to be covered with cross
slabs, while they stand apart from one another at a
distance of some six feet, and not close together,
as such a theory would require. Besides, where
would the mound material be taken to in such a
place ?
was never even intended to be covered with
a mound or cairn. These avenues attain their
highest development when unattended with any
Callernish, from these and other considerations,
other structures or superstructures in the way of
circles or of mounds, as at Carnac, in France. Another
accompaniment of the stone circle may be a
single standing stone or " menhir," placed either
interior or exterior to it.
And, lastly, we may men-